


heroes don't get happy endings (so we'll have to be the first)

by FyreLily



Category: RWBY
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff and Angst, Gay, How Do I Tag, I'm Bad At Tagging, Kissing, Romance, haha fruits, like very sad and stuff shes close to giving up, no beta we die like redheads in rwby, uhh ruby is. very sad
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-06
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-16 13:28:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28582764
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FyreLily/pseuds/FyreLily
Summary: Ruby is tired. She is scared. And she tries to be strong, but she has been slowly breaking for almost three years.Weiss is by her side. They aren't leaving each other. Not again.And sometimes all you need is a hand to hold.White roses symbolize a new beginning and everlasting love.
Relationships: Ruby Rose/Weiss Schnee
Comments: 10
Kudos: 92





	heroes don't get happy endings (so we'll have to be the first)

**Author's Note:**

> hiii!! I was feeling in a whiterose mood today so i... wrote this. yay! I hope you enjoy!

Ruby feels…

Broken. 

She knows that she’s slowly been breaking, bit by bit, pieces of her cracking off and falling away. Shattered, into pieces as small as bits of glass. Little shards of a looking glass. Little shards of a mirror.

A mirror.

Ruby hates mirrors. She hates her reflection, how she looks. How fucking perfect she looks. No, not perfect. That can’t be it. Ruby knows better than anybody that she is not perfect. What she despises about her reflection is that… 

She looks fine. 

She doesn’t look like she’s hurting. 

She doesn’t look damaged. 

She doesn’t look broken.

She doesn’t look like she’s about to shatter into a million pieces on the floor. 

She doesn’t look the way she feels. 

Ruby doesn’t want to look broken. But she doesn’t want to look… okay. It’s not a clear cut answer. She wants to be strong, brave, a wall of steel for others to lean on. She wants her friends to believe in her. Ruby wants to give them hope. 

But at the same time, Ruby is falling. Drowning. She wishes desperately that someone would grab her hand, pull her up and out of the water, let  _ her  _ lean on  _ them _ for once. Someone to grab her arm, someone to help her surface, someone to hold her hand and-

“Ruby?”

Someone to hold her hand.

Weiss is holding her hand tightly. “Ruby? Are you okay?”

Ruby blinks. She’s in Schnee Manor. She’s with Weiss, and Blake, and May and Klein and Whitley and... Nora.

Nora, who got hurt.

my fault it’s all my fault i’m to blame this is my fault i caused it i’m so sorry

“I asked you a question,” Weiss tells her gently, as if she can tell what’s running through Ruby’s mind. “Are you okay?”

Ruby breathes in. And out.

_ It wasn’t my fault. She did it to help Penny. We couldn’t have stopped her. I don’t have to blame myself. She did it because she’s Nora, and she wanted to help Penny. _

**_Fat load of good that did!_ ** the little voice in her head hisses.  **_Now she’s hurt and for all you know, Penny could be too!_ **

Suddenly, Ruby feels a warm hand on her cheek. It’s Weiss. 

“Ruby, please. I know you’re worried about Nora, about Penny, and Yang and the others, but… we’re worried about you too.”

She leans closer, just a bit. “ _ I’m  _ worried about you.” 

Ruby’s breath hitches. She feels the tears building up in her silver eyes. Her stupid, silver, mirror eyes. Mirrors are supposed to simply reflect. She can’t cry. Not now. Not while there’s so much at stake. Her silver has to be solid as the metal itself.

“It’s okay,” Weiss murmurs. “It’s okay to cry every once in a while.”

Ruby does. She cries, for what feels like the first time in ages. It was only a few days ago the last time she cried, but it feels like a million years since then. Penny became a maiden. Ironwood declared martial law. Qrow got arrested. They split in half. Penny had to separate from them. 

A few days, feeling like a few decades. She sobs harder. Weiss embraces her, hugging her firmly, resting Ruby’s head on her shoulder. Ruby feels Weiss shiver as the older girl begins to hiccup and the dark haired Huntress feels her partner’s tears dripping onto her cape. They hold each other, just as they did when Beacon fell. When they were lost, and scared, and tired, and everything was breaking, but then they saw each other. They saw each other and for a moment, everything was okay. The night when their lives began to slowly fall apart.

No.

It wasn’t slow, not at first. It was one blow after another. What happened to Penny. The invasion. Oz’s death. Pyrrha’s death. Yang’s arm. Blake running away. Weiss being  _ taken  _ away. And the hundreds of other deaths, children and Huntsmen alike. People that Ruby never knew. All those faces, kids that she had passed in the halls, or said hello to, or admired after a victory. So many of them, gone. They would never get to be Hunters. 

But Ruby was a Huntress. She had survived the fall of Beacon. She had been lifted from the rubble of Beacon Tower, and carried home. She had stood up, and left everything she knew behind in order to try and save the world. She became a hero.

Ruby Rose was a hero. Ruby Rose was a Huntress. And Ruby Rose was surrounded by ghosts. Her mother’s ghost had hung over her since she was a child. But on the night her life crumbled apart two years ago, she slowly began collecting more. 

Pyrrha. 

The brave girl had died for a noble cause. Ruby had watched the arrow lodge itself in her heart. She died protecting people. She died a hero. But she was never coming back

Penny. 

Penny came back. Against all odds, Penny was returned to her. But now things were dangerous. And Penny being alive, but separated, was almost as bad. Ruby has never gotten the image of her friend’s mangled body out of her head. 

Oz.

She… she didn't hate him. But he ruined so many lives. Destroyed so many homes. Broke everything in an attempt to fix it. And then he left. Retreating into the back of her friend’s head, another life left utterly shattered. And because of Oz, everyone was counting on her. 

And Summer Rose.

Ruby just wanted her mother back. 

Why did she have to be a hero? She signed up to be a Huntress. She signed up to save people. She never asked to be handed the responsibility to save the world. Never wanted to be faced with an impossible task. 

_ Salem can’t be killed.  _

Her mother couldn’t do it. So why did everyone think that Ruby could?

“...what?”

Ruby isn’t crying anymore. Her cheeks are wet, but she isn’t crying. She looks down. Weiss’s blue eyes meet hers, the color of a cloudless summer sky, and still full of tears.

“You can do it.”

“What?” Ruby asks hoarsely. Had she possibly said her last thought aloud? Comparing herself to…

“ _ I  _ believe in you. We all do. And not because you’re the leader. Because you’re our friend. And we’ve seen what you can do, what you’re capable of. We’ve seen you get knocked down and come back stronger. I’ve seen you take a heavy blow and keep on running. I’ve seen you fight the impossible, Ruby,” Weiss insists. “And return the victor.” 

Weiss clutches Ruby tightly. “I never knew your mom. And to be honest, I don’t think I ever really knew  _ my  _ mom. But we aren’t our parents. And, even if your mom- if your mom tried to stop Salem and failed, I can give you one excellent reason right now why you won’t do the same.”

She tilts her chin up to Ruby’s ear. “Do you want to hear it or not?”

Ruby nods, unable to form words. 

Weiss lifts her arms, tenderly moving Ruby’s as well. She curls her partner’s hands into a fist, and covers them with her own gloved fingers. They lock eyes. 

“Because you have us. Because you have me. Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Ren, Oscar, Penny… and me. We’ll all support you, no matter what. We trust you. And if you need a break, we can step up. If you need help, it’s never a burden for us to help you.” 

They’re close. Ruby is sure that Weiss can hear her heart pounding. The blue eyed girl smiles in a soft sort of way. Not a full smile. But it makes her even more lovely.

“You are not a burden. You are so, so strong, but no one can be strong all the time. We’re all stronger together. That’s what the fairy tales say, right? Love makes us strong.”

Ruby tears her gaze away from Weiss. She looks to the ground. “Fairy tales are just… stories.”

Weiss sighs and takes Ruby’s hand again, rubbing it slowly with her thumb. “Not all of them. We both know that.”

“Even the ones that are real… they don’t get happy endings.” Ruby feels her eyes begin to fill up with tears again. “You saw what happened to Salem and Oz. He defeated the beasts, saved the princess, and they fell in love. But it didn’t last.”

She shakes her head. “Heroes don’t get happy endings, Weiss.”   
  


There’s silence. Ruby stares at the ground, tears beginning to fall. 

“Then we’ll be the first.”

“What?”

A gentle hand reaches out. Ruby lets Weiss guide her chin back up, and they look at each other. Ruby can see herself in Weiss’s sapphire blue eyes. She’s… a bit of a mess. Good, she decides. That’s fine by her. 

But Weiss is… stunning. She’s far from perfect. A bit of her snow-white hair is falling out of her braid, and her eyes are red from crying (although not quite as red as Ruby’s). But to the dark haired huntress, it’s quite possible that she has never looked more beautiful. 

“I said, we’ll be the first. All of us. Blake, Yang, Team JNPR. Penny. Qrow. And… .” Weiss tilts her head slightly to the side, with that same, radiant smile. “Me and you.”

  
  


“The first heroes with a happy ending.”

Ruby has no idea what’s happening. One moment she’s sitting next to the girl who’s been her partner for over two years, and the next…

She’s kissing her. 

And everything is covered in roses. She’s seeing stars. She’s on fire.

And Weiss is kissing her back. 

And much too soon, it’s over. Ruby hears Weiss let out a small laugh, and a whisper:

“You dolt… I love you, you know that?”

And somehow Ruby knows that things will be okay.

“I love you too.”

\---

And just a few months later, when they finally win, Ruby looks to Weiss. There’s ruin and destruction. Ruby remembers three years ago, when they found each other as the world came crashing down. But this is different. 

They run to each other. Their light. Their lifeline.

There are broken buildings, and smoke in the air. 

But this time, it’s not a beginning to a long, difficult story. 

And as Weiss’s arms wrap around Ruby, as Ruby cups her partner’s cheek, as they kiss…

Ruby knows that finally, they have found their happy ending. 

  


**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading!! feedback is always appreciated, and please feel free to tell me if there are any tags I should add, or if I have any typos. [You can find me on twitter @ sapphicscarlett](https://twitter.com/sapphicscarlett), and here's a link to my [curiouscat](https://curiouscat.qa/sapphicscarlett) !! have a lovely day!


End file.
